political events and massacres as the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Peking, Monsieur Favier, who recently died. This was partially owing
to his remarkable judgment, and partially owing to his wide sources
of information, as Catholic converts are four times as numerous as
Protestant converts. Monsieur Favier, ahead of events, was the best
informed foreigner in China regarding the “Boxer” movement of 1900,
and if his advice had been followed by the legations, the foreigners
would have left Peking for the coast before the siege was instituted.
He did not intend to leave himself, as he felt it to be his duty to die
if necessary with his converts. Every one has admired his successful
defense of the Pei Tang cathedral.
The following prominent American educationalists in China visited
America in November, 1912, and spoke for China at the World’s Oriental
Congress at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts: Vice-president
Williams, of Nanking University; President Edmunds, of Canton Christian
College; President Goucher, of the University of Chingtu, and Professor
C. W. Young, of Union Medical College, Peking. It was regretted that
President Sheffield and Doctor Arthur H. Smith, the eminent author, of
the American Congregational College of North China, were not present.
Late advices state that the Chinese government at the close of 1912 has
taken into its employ in the administration of the salt gabelle, J. F.
Oiesen, a Dane of Tientsin; and as legal adviser, Monsieur Recouse, a
prominent Belgian. Wherever Belgians are used, it is generally for the
purpose of hiding the hands of France, and sometimes of Russia.
XVI
THE MANCHU
When the republicans rebelled against the dynasty, the following was
the indictment issued to the world’s press, and signed by Foreign
Minister Wu Ting Fang and Assistant Foreign Secretary Wen Tsung Yao,
at Shanghai. Wu, all the world knows as the Jefferson of the new
republican China. Wen is a very able modern lawyer, who made his name
as a resourceful amban at Lhasa.
1. Incapacity.
2. Reactionary.
3. Benighted and barbaric.
4. Opposes modern knowledge, science and industry.
5. Favors a closed door; stultified national service.
6. Opposes government by the people; favors Manchus who are
only one in about one hundred of the population.
7. Pensions a vast horde of non-working Manchus.
8. Barbaric against life and property, when opposed.
9. Constitutional promise insincere.
10. Manchus hold back world-progress.
11. Gave away Chinese territory.
12. Despised the Chinese and prohibited intermarriage.
13. Taxation without representation.
14. Haughtily refused to adopt Chinese system of three names,
thus maintaining a separate society.
15. The Manchu has no literature, and, therefore, is a
barbarian.
This Chinese Declaration of Independence first appeared at length
in the _North China Daily News_, of Shanghai, on November 15, 1911.
Similar complaints had been brought against the Manchu when the Taiping
rebellion opened in 1850. The Manchus were a hunting tribe whose
preserves lay along the wooded foothills of the Long White Mountain
(Chang Pai Shan) northeast of Mukden. The region is well described by
James in his _Long White Mountain_ (1888). The chieftain who whipped
the Manchus into shape for conquest was Nurha-Chu. He drilled their
cavalrymen from 1559 to 1626. From scattered tribes, dwelling in felt
michung-tents, he organized them as a Manchu horde with an ambition.
The Great Wall was not erected against the Manchus, but against the
ancient ancestors of Tartar cousins of theirs. The Manchus themselves
erected a palisade-barricade against their cousins, the Khitans, on the
west. It ran from Shan Hai Kwan, on the Pechili Gulf, where the Great
Wall meets the sea, northward five hundred miles until it reached the
Sungari River and encircled Kirin. I think it is difficult now to find
any part of the stockade, but I believe that James and Younghusband
found evidences of it in their exploration of Manchuria about 1886.
The North China Railway embankment west of Mukden absorbed part of the
historic mounds. The Manchus had no script. Nurha-Chu gave them one
based upon the Mongolian, which in turn was copied from the vertical
Syriac. This showed that Nurha-Chu talked with traveling priests who
had come down the Tarim valley. You will note the character on the
back of any Chinese cash coin, which has a square hole in the middle.
Obtain one of these coins, for they will be minted no more, and they
are historic; in fact, the oldest coin known. They are the oldest as
far as the Chinese face is concerned; the Manchu merely put the name of
the reign in Manchu on one side of the Chinese coin, ten of which
exchange for one American cent.
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
A splendid view of the Great Wall, at its most picturesque angle.
Note tree-denuded mountains, the cause of the awful floods and
consequent famines. To pierce the wall was formerly a religious
sacrilege and a political folly.
]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Mule carts of North China: note serrated wheels, which are a commentary
on the muddy or sandy roads.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Pailoo memorial arch, a splendid type of the Chinese roof and screen
carving.]
The Manchus had learned that the host of Chinese people, one hundred
to his one, had no transport service (ponies); that they, therefore,
were not cohesive or mobile; that their capital could be held by any
bold clan which would at the beginning not exact too heavy a tribute,
and which would allow the people practically to rule themselves by
the classical examination and democratic civil service. The Manchus
informed this civil service that they could hold their places if they
adopted the Manchu style of hair-dressing, which was done, and in time
Manchu yellow instead of Chinese blue became the official dress of
honor. The Chinese women were unconquerable. They never adopted the
Manchu style of dressing the hair over the ears, or of not compressing
the feet. The Manchus refused to adopt the Chinese system of using
family names first, making a three-named system, as Li Hung-Chang. The
Manchus used merely their double names, as Na-Tung, but their family
names were entered on the roster of one of the eight military banners.
Gradually the Manchu garrisons bullied the Chinese out of their walled
cities, and the Chinese had to build a second wall around the suburbs.
The events and dates of Manchu history, as it affects their own Ta
Ching (Great Pure) and foreign (Fung Kwei) civilizations, are told
shortly, as follows:
The Manchu Tien-Tsung overthrows the Ming King
Hwai Tsung and occupies Peking 1643
Tea brought to Europe in English ships from Canton 1660
Kang-Hi, greatest and most artistic Manchu Emperor,
ascends throne, Christianity almost established 1661
Galdan, Prince of Jungaria, conquers Kashgaria and
becomes supreme in Central Asia 1678
First treaty with European power (Russia) 1689
Commerce with East India Company begins at Canton 1680
Yung-Ching ascends throne; anti-Christian 1722
Jesuits expelled 1724
English send first man-of-war, _Centurion_, to China,
English being active at Canton, Ningpo, etc. 1742
First American vessel, _Empress of China_, from New
York, Captain Green, reaches Canton, China 1784
First American Consul, Major Shaw, at Macao,
China 1786
Philadelphia opens China trade with ship _Alliance_ 1788
Boston opens China trade with ship _Massachusetts_ 1789
Earl Macartney’s mission arrives at Peking, throwing
light on the Empire, which appeared to contain
4,402 walled cities, population 333,000,000,
the Tartar and Manchu army being 1,000,000 infantry
and 800,000 cavalry. Government absolute 1793
Macartney ordered to depart, the Chinese deciding to
seal the country against foreigners October 7, 1793
Sir G. L. Staunton, at London, in three volumes reveals
the heart of China and the capital to the
world, fixing the nations in their determination to
open China to modernity 1798
First English Protestant missionary, Robert Morrison,
arrives, and in American factory of Milner &
Bull at Canton translates Bible and compiles Chinese-English
dictionary 1808
Edict against Christianity 1812
Lord Amherst’s embassy, which failed because he
would not make “kotow” to Emperor as a
bearer of tribute from an inferior nation 1816
Exclusive rights of East India Company cease 1834
Lord Napier arrives at Macao to superintend British
commerce 1834
Opium dispute begins; the trade prohibited by
Emperor November, 1834
Opium burned at Canton by famous Chinese Commissioner
Lin February, 1835
Captain Elliot and British merchants leave Canton May, 1839
British and American seamen fight Chinese at Canton July 7, 1839
Hongkong taken by British August 23, 1839
British retire from Macao August 26, 1839
American frigate _Powhatan_ and British sloop _Rattler_
fight Chinese pirates in Kowloon Bay, opposite
Hongkong September 4, 1839
British trade with China ceases by edict of
Emperor December 6, 1839
Opium war between England and China, in which
old China received the soundest thrashing she ever
received from any foreign nation; many engagements;
many ports taken 1840
Treaty of peace signed before Nanking on board
ship _Cornwallis_, Sir Henry Pottinger for England
and Ki-Ying and Neu-Kien for China, China
paying indemnity of $21,000,000, throwing
open as treaty ports Canton, Amoy, Fuchau,
Ningpo and Shanghai, and ceding Hongkong
Island to Britain August 29, 1842
American Commissioner Cushing, Daniel Webster’s
son Fletcher, etc., arrive at Canton 1844
Manchu yellow instead of Chinese blue adopted as
official color 1855
Famous Empress Dowager Tse Hsi and Viceroy Li
Hung Chang arise to power 1856
Non-fulfilment of Nanking treaty with Britain causes
war again 1856
Coolie slave trade for Peru, Cuba, California, etc.,
opens at Macao 1860
Britain and France war with China 1860
Taiping rebellion, beginning at Canton, sweeps to
Nanking; opposed by the American, Ward;
Chinese Gordon, etc., on behalf of Manchus 1863
Yung Wing brings first Chinese students to America
(Hartford) 1872
Terrific Mohammedan rebellion in Shensi, Kansu,
Yunnan provinces and Turkestan, suppressed by
ferocious General Tso Tsung-tang, Mohammedan
leader, Yakub Beg, being assassinated in Turkestan May, 1877
Sir Robert Hart establishes Chinese national customs,
first guarantee for foreign loans 1886
China-Japan war over Korea; Formosa lost; indemnity
also paid 1894
Emperor Kwang Hsu’s reform edicts, influenced by
Kang Yu Wei 1898
Siege of Peking by allies 1900
Russia-Japan war over Manchuria 1904
America, Britain and China at Shanghai agree to end
opium curse 1909
Death of Emperor Kwang Hsu and Empress Dowager
Tse Hsi together 1909
Republican rebellion, led by Generals Li and Hsu,
and planned by Sun Yat Sen 1911
Abdication of Manchus 1912
One serious charge against the Manchu is that he has been continually
signing away China: Formosa and Korea to Japan, Manchuria to Russia,
Kwangchou Bay and Tonquin to France, Kiaochou to Germany, and
Wei-Hai-Wei to Britain. The Manchus themselves are to blame for the
lack of respect shown the throne and dynasty in the last fifty years.
Prince Chun might have taken the throne himself, but in fear of the
cabal of jealous princes he named his child Pu Yi. This system of
a long regency had several times been put in force by the Manchu
intriguer, especially by the Dowager Tse Hsi with Kwang Hsu. When the
latter grew up and asserted himself, he was destroyed, and another
child, this Pu Yi, named as his successor. The same murderous and
unstable system has been followed in putting up a new child Dalai
Lama at Lhasa every few years, the old Dalai being informed that “it
is time for him to pass his soul on to a new incarnation”. He can
commit hara-kiri or be murdered. The Chinese people felt that there
was no emperor to worship and obey, but rather a cabal in usurpation
at Peking, and an irreligious cabal at that. From the time of the Chou
founders, 1200 B. C., to make light of the sacrifices by letting a
child do a man’s duties, was a cardinal sin.
Moreover, the Manchu in his long rule at Peking debased the idea of
government by women and eunuch favorites. No one concerned will ever
forget the power of the notorious eunuch Li Lien Ying at Peking in the
years which led to the coup d’état of 1898, when reformers and emperor
were crushed to the ground. This notorious “grafter” really shared the
throne power with the Dowager Tse Hsi, and the Emperor Kwang Hsu was in
continual disgrace. The Manchus knew that it was unconstitutional to
honor eunuchs. During the minority of Kang-Hi, the greatest emperor of
the Manchus, the regents degraded the eunuchs and had the law engraved
on iron plates of one thousand pounds each. Why did not Tse Hsi observe
this law during her long regency? Did she think the people would not
remember and that her successor, Prince Chun, and the dynasty would
not suffer? Because of her hospitality when at the close of her life
she permitted her portrait to be painted for the St. Louis Exposition
by a talented American woman, and when she entertained several of the
charming legation ladies at Peking, books have been written by her
guests, in their womanly kindness of heart, and one book by a talented
editor friend of mine at Hongkong, palliating her offenses as a tyrant,
a reactionary and a murderess. The long cold history of British and
American diplomacy; the domestic history of China during her period,
the Boxer siege, the written testimony of the Emperor Kwang Hsu, her
“dummy” policy, the experiences of the great reformers, including
Yuan; her persecution over the whole world of Kang Yu Wei and Sun Yat
Sen by her spy system; the national newspapers, the publications of
Ching-Shan, her household controller; the statements of the American
secretaries of her chief viceroy, Li Hung Chang; the republican
revolution and Declaration of Independence of 1911, are all insistent
that egotism and reaction sat closest to the heart of this powerful
woman; that she belonged to the class of Catherine and not to the class
of Elizabeth or Victoria. If this was the character for seventy years
of the leader of the Manchus, what was the character of the followers!
Owing to the Manchu’s lack of an art sense, he has neglected the
beautiful bridges and broad roads left by the Sung dynasty; the
artistic towers left by the Tang dynasty; the gorgeous pagodas left
by the artistically incomparable Ming dynasty; and the fine canals
left by the Mongols. There should, perhaps, be less surprise over the
difference in the intellectual powers of the Manchu and the Chinese.
Three hundred and fifty years ago the Manchu was only a hunter, a
warrior and fisherman, like his cousins, the Buriats and Tungus up
in Siberia to-day; whereas for immemorial centuries the Chinese has
been a merchant, a scientific agriculturalist, and a scholar, and has
always earned his own living without benefit of government subsidy or
class privilege in any way, which have enervated the Manchus of to-day
and yesterday. The reaction of the patient Chinese in the October,
1911, rebellion against the Manchu conqueror was natural. The surprise
is that it was withheld for three centuries. The Manchus have never
mingled with the Chinese. All the large cities, even to distant Canton
and Yunnan, 1,200 and 1,400 miles away from the center of power, have
separate walled Manchu cities, or Tartar cities as they are generally
called, which were taken from the original Chinese. In an effort to
appease the complaints of insurgents, the Regent Prince Chun in 1909
recalled the edict which until that late year prohibited Manchus from
marrying Chinese.
Like all minorities that try to intrench their privileges, the Manchu
is much of a “snob”. It is not uncommon to hear this sneer at Peking
regarding the Chinese women of the south: “Oh, she’s a woman from
the southern provinces; you can’t expect manners from her.” The fact
is that the Chinese women of Nanking, Hangchow, Soochow, Canton and
other southern cities have more refined manners than the rough-riding
Manchus, the daughters of raiders. The wearing of the queue and the
skull cap is a Manchu custom, imposed in the seventeenth century upon
the conquered Chinese. One of the first things the Han republicans did
in the October, 1911, revolution was to cut off the queue which they
declared was a sign of servitude to the dynasty which they were trying
to displace. The head-dress of the Manchu women shows the bunching of
the hair over each ear instead of behind the head and on the neck, as
is the Chinese custom. The Manchus do not deform the feet, nor paint,
both of which have been Chinese customs. The gown of the Manchu women
is longer than that of the Chinese women, the latter showing the
divided skirt, or rather wide trousers. Other distinctive Manchu styles
are the jewel-buttons, denoting rank, worn on the peak of the conical
official hat; the peacock’s feather worn at the back of the hat; the
peacock design in embroidery; the yellow riding jacket.
Manchus drink kaoliang spirits in place of rice samshu. Their battle
flags have been triangular instead of oblong. The peculiar daylight
audiences given by the throne to the grand councilors and viceroys
showed the fear of publicity, and a recognition of estrangement from
the people. They seemed to think that a throne that was surrounded
with a good deal of mystery, exclusiveness, smoke of incense and
darkness was stronger than a throne that was clearly outlined in the
love of the people. A curious worship of the Manchu leaders, who are
more superstitious than religious, is that of the fox. The great Fox
Temple at Mukden, the ancestral temple of the dynasty, is famous. The
Chinese leaders have never been as crude as this in their grossest
superstition. The Chinese, especially the hard-working southerners who
pay most of the taxes, have objected to the pensions accorded to a
million Manchus gathered under the eight banners, and quartered, with
the privilege to bear arms, in walled cities, barracks and arsenals
throughout the land. In the fall of the Manchus, intrenched so long
behind a spy system, control of taxation, trade routes and judicial
appointees, all oppressive systems and tyrants should take notice
that however intrenched they may seem to be against the people, the
people will in the end become supreme, with a long, long memory of the
wrongs that they have endured against their will, and the theme of
“Restitution” on their tongues. To quote the words of Wu Ting Fang, the
Jefferson of China, well known to Americans and Britons: “The hand of
the people is now at the plough, and they must of necessity push on to
the uttermost end of the furrow.”
The books written on Manchuria include James’ _Long White Mountain_;
Sir Francis Younghusband’s _Narrative of Travels in Manchuria_, 1896;
Hosie’s _Manchuria, Its People, Etc._; Howarth’s _Origin of the
Manchus_; Doctor J. Ross’ _Manchus or the Reigning Dynasty_; E. H.
Parker’s _Manchus in China_. Doctor A. Wylie translated the Manchu
grammar and the _Tsing Wen Keung_. These are all British writers.
Professor I. Zacharoff compiled a Russian-Manchu dictionary and wrote
on the Manchus in 1875, and Von Mollendorff composed a Manchu grammar.
It is possible that in exile from the throne the Manchus may revive
the little literature and language that they possess; or, champion
intriguers that they and their race are, Prince Tuan, Prince Su, the
Tsai Princes, General Yin Tchang and others may continue to plot from
Jehol, Kalgan, Urga, Mukden, Dalny and other places of exile. Manchu
literature consists of only two hundred and fifty works, nearly all of
which are translations of the Chinese classics.
What greater proof was ever given of the irreconcilable differences
between the Manchus and Chinese, than the ominous silence of the
Chinese members of the momentous meeting of the Grand Council called
by the Empress Dowager Tse Hsi at Peking on June 16, 1900, to decide
on the final attitude toward the “Boxers”. When the Manchus showed an
insane determination to destroy their dynasty, the Chinese members by
silence assented, and the republican rebellion of 1911 was only the
outward manifestation of the spirit of the silence of 1900.
XVII
CHINA’S ARMY AND NAVY
The revolution of 1911 made known to the world the Chinese generals
on the northern and southern sides, who were really able to command a
modern army in action as well as in field maneuvers. Generals Li, Ling,
Ho, Hwang, Hsu, etc., were the leading southerners. Generals Feng,
Chang, Chao and Sheng were among the leading northerners in active
service. All of these are Chinese. The much-heralded Manchu generals
proved a failure, and few of the old-style Tartar generals, like Chiang
and Chen of Pechili province; Na Yen, of Kalgan; Tuan, of the Red
Banner Corps; Prince Su, of the Peking Gendarmerie, etc., were called
upon to serve in the field. The latter decidedly had the ferocious
temperament, but they lacked the knowledge of modern tactics. General
Chao Ehr Feng, conqueror of the Tibet mutiny and the Dalai Lama in
1910, an effective old-style general, was cooped up in Chingtu City at
the opening of the rebellion in September, 1911. General Yin Tchang,
the Manchu general-in-chief; Brigadiers-General Ha and Liang, who
visited America in 1910; Major General Ho; Prince Tsai Tao, the Manchu
minister of war; Prince Yu Lang, of the dapper gray Imperial Guards,
etc., never got much nearer the war than the point of mobilization, and
their private car on the Hankau-Peking railway, with the engine pointed
northward! The military princes of the royal blood, Tsai Pu, Tsai Jin,
Duke Ling, Prince Pu, etc., all kept their dress uniforms innocent
of the dust of field and the grime of powder. Prince Tsai Hsu, royal
admiral of the navy, kept aboard his luxurious steam yacht which the
Kiangnan Dock Company of Shanghai built for him, and sulked away from
Admiral Sah’s service fleet, which was making a last dash to cut the
rebel’s left flank between Wuchang and Hankau.